Response of ZnO/GaN Heterostructure to Ion Irradiation

In this paper we report on the analysis of Al+-implanted ZnO/GaN bilayers in search for the damage production mechanism and possible ion mixing. 100 nm or 200 nm thick ZnO epitaxial layers were grown on GaN substrates by either sputter deposition or atomic layer deposition technique followed by adequate annealing. Ion irradiations of ZnO/GaN were carried out at room temperature using 200 keV Al+ ions with fluences of 2 x 10(15) and 10(16) at./cm(2). Unprocessed and irradiated samples were characterized by the Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in channeling geometry (RBS\c), X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Additionally, secondary ion mass spectrometry was employed for the aforementioned samples as well as for the implanted samples subjected to further annealing. It was found that the damage distributions in ZnO/GaN differ considerably from the corresponding defect profiles in the bulk ZnO and GaN crystals, most probably due to an additional strain originating from the lattice mismatch. Amount of intermixing appears to be relatively small; apparently, efficient recombination prevents foreign atoms to relocate to large distances.